Damián and his family live on the outskirts of the centre of Ayutla de los Libres1 in south-western Mexico. In May 2022, they and two other families bought the land after they were expelled from their village because they belong to a religious minority.
On 25 March 2021, Damián, age 38 at the time, was called before the Ahucachahue community assembly in Ayutla de los Libres Municipality, located in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero. The people of Ahucachahue are Mixteco, and the majority practice Roman Catholicism. At the meeting, community leaders informed him that he had been appointed to lead the festivals in honor of San Isidro Labrador,2 their patron saint. Damián would be responsible for contracting musical groups and suppliers of alcohol and food, in addition to the administrative tasks that accompany the rituals specific to the Roman Catholic saint.
Continue reading “From faith to exile in Guerrero, Mexico “However, Damián had converted to Protestant-Evangelical Christianity four years earlier, in 2017, as had many others. He refused the position.
